Rumors have been rolling in the last couple of days about a significant injury to one of the Tar Heels top receivers. Just prior to tonight’s kickoff with Miami, the program has announced that news as well as the loss of a key special teams member for the season.
As first reported by Inside Carolina, wide receiver Kobe Paysour will be out indefinitely with a broken foot. The injury reportedly occurred during Tuesday’s practice following a career performance against Syracuse.
Paysour has taken on a bigger role this year in his third season with the program. He started all five games this season, splitting his time between the slot and the outside. He has caught 22 passes for 282 yards and three touchdowns so far this year and ranks top three on the team in all three of those categories through five games.
Paysour’s absence will certainly hurt, but the good news is that the team has three other receivers that they can rely on. Nate McCollum will handle the snaps in the slot almost exclusively moving forward, while J.J. Jones and Tez Walker will handle the snaps on the outside.
While Paysour’s injury doesn’t appear to be season-ending by what was reported but unfortunately, that is not the case for senior punter Ben Kiernan.Â
The fifth-year graduate student will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury suffered on the first down run he made after a blocked punt a week ago against Syracuse. Kiernan finishes the season with a 41.2 yard average on his nine punts. In his career, Kiernan, a third team All-ACC has punted 196 times for an average of 43.6 yards.
With Kiernan out, walk-on Tom Maginness will take over that starting punting job moving forward.